!ACTION CENTER!

“Community Choice Energy” gives customers a choice in their energy provider. With Community Choice Energy, cities and counties contract with a licensed energy service provider to purchase energy in bulk, build renewable energy generating facilities, and implement energy efficiency programs. This efficient public/private partnership makes it possible to get the greenest energy at the best rates. This is how we should be able to purchase energy.

But PG&E doesn’t like competition. We saw that when they spent 45 million dollars to change the California constitution to eliminate the competition to stop Marin County and other Community Choice Energy projects.

I followed the Marin Supervisors when they pushed their Marin Clean Energy concept through. Thanks to some very bright people, Marin County can now purchase greener energy at lower rates and 100% solar is available.

Sonoma County saw the success of Marin Clean Energy and created their own Community Choice Energy and yes, it works too.

After seeing these non profit companies make this work, this should be a no brainer: Greener and cheaper and the money stays somewhat local.

Shawn Marshall, who spoke to many in Mendocino County recently, was a main force for Marin Clean Energy. As she has said; “The accomplishments of cheaper cleaner energy proves MCE is a sound business model.” She is correct. I watched it happen. Sonoma County now has Sonoma Clean Energy also and It works.

Sonoma County has offered to let Mendocino County energy users a chance to buy into this setup. Sonoma County’s power has a higher renewable content than PG&E’s. CleanStart is 80% carbon free — 37% from sources considered renewable under California’s regulations, like wind, biomass and geothermal, and 41% from large hydropower facilities.

I don’t think Mendocino County has the money to create its own public power agency. So let’s go with Sonoma County.

Mendocino County Supervisors: Please vote to give us a choice. It’s a good deal.
~~

[Bernie’s new group will make sure Hillary becomes a real progressive, and help elect progressive House and Senate candidates to back it up… ds]

From Bernie Sanders

Our campaign has always been about a grassroots movement of Americans standing up and saying: “Enough is enough. This country and our government belong to all of us, not just a handful of billionaires.”

I just finished speaking at the Democratic National Convention, where I addressed the historic nature of our grassroots movement and what’s next for our political revolution.

I hope that I made you proud. I know that Jane and I are very proud of you.

Our work will continue in the form of a new group called Our Revolution.The goal of this organization will be no different from the goal of our campaign: we must transform American politics to make our political and economic systems once again responsive to the needs of working families.

When we started this campaign a little more than a year ago, the media and the political establishment considered us to be a “fringe” campaign. Well, we’re not fringe anymore.

Thanks to your tireless work and generous contributions, we won 23 primaries and caucuses with more than 13 million votes, all of which led to the 1900 delegates we have on the floor this week at the Democratic convention.

What we have done together is absolutely unprecedented, but there is so much more to do. It starts with defeating Donald Trump in November, and then continuing to fight for every single one of our issues in order to transform America.

We are going to fight to make sure that the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party becomes law. This means working for a $15 federal minimum wage, fighting for a national fracking ban, and so many more progressive priorities.

The political revolution needs you in order to make all this happen and more.

I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I gave it to you straight last summer when I told you that Donald Trump would be the Republican nominee for president. And now I have even more awful, depressing news for you: Donald J. Trump is going to win in November. This wretched, ignorant, dangerous part-time clown and full time sociopath is going to be our next president. President Trump. Go ahead and say the words, ‘cause you’ll be saying them for the next four years: “PRESIDENT TRUMP.”

Never in my life have I wanted to be proven wrong more than I do right now.

I can see what you’re doing right now. You’re shaking your head wildly – “No, Mike, this won’t happen!” Unfortunately, you are living in a bubble that comes with an adjoining echo chamber where you and your friends are convinced the American people are not going to elect an idiot for president. You alternate between being appalled at him and laughing at him because of his latest crazy comment or his embarrassingly narcissistic stance on everything because everything is about him. And then you listen to Hillary and you behold our very first female president, someone the world respects, someone who is whip-smart and cares about kids, who will continue the Obama legacy because that is what the American people clearly want! Yes! Four more years of this!

You need to exit that bubble right now. You need to stop living in denial and face the truth which you know deep down is very, very real. Trying to soothe yourself with the facts – “77% of the electorate are women, people of color, young adults under 35 and Trump cant win a majority of any of them!” – or logic – “people aren’t going to vote for a buffoon or against their own best interests!” – is your brain’s way of trying to protect you from trauma. Like when you hear a loud noise on the street and you think, “oh, a tire just blew out,” or, “wow, who’s playing with firecrackers?” because you don’t want to think you just heard someone being shot with a gun. It’s the same reason why all the initial news and eyewitness reports on 9/11 said “a smallplane accidentally flew into the World Trade Center.” We want to – we need to – hope for the best because, frankly, life is already a shit show and it’s hard enough struggling to get by from paycheck to paycheck. We can’t handle much more bad news. So our mental state goes to default when something scary is actually, truly happening. The first people plowed down by the truck in Nice spent their final moments on earth waving at the driver whom they thought had simply lost control of his truck, trying to tell him that he jumped the curb: “Watch out!,” they shouted. “There are people on the sidewalk!”

The Hotline Project is expanding to include a new, Live Chat Line. Now, people all across the world can connect with a Hotline Agent through an instant chat client.

Think about it… Anybody who may risk being outed because someone overhears their call can now get help using their computer, tablet, or smartphone.

Our tentative launch date is March 1, 2016. In order to meet that deadline, we need volunteers to work as chat line agents. We’ll provide the training and mentoring so you are well prepared and confident in your work.

We also need your financial support. Even a small donation will go a long way to helping us get the chat line operational.

I’m offering you this personal invitation to join us as we make history…again!

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today’s long-awaited release of the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s (TPP) reveals that the pact replicates many of the most controversial terms of past pacts that promote job offshoring and push down U.S wages while further expanding the scope of the controversial investor-state system and rolling back improvements on access to affordable medicines and environmental standards that congressional Democrats forced on the George W. Bush administration in 2007.

“Apparently, the TPP’s proponents resorted to such extreme secrecy during negotiations because the text shows TPP would offshore more American jobs, lower our wages, flood us with unsafe imported food and expose our laws to attack in foreign tribunals,” said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. “When the administration says it used the TPP to renegotiate NAFTA, few expected that meant doubling down on the worst job-killing, wage-suppressing NAFTA terms, expanding limits on food safety and rolling back past reforms on environmental standards and access to affordable drugs.”

On some key issues, the text reveals provisions that will cost TPP support from members of Congress who supported the narrow passage of Fast Track trade authority this summer, and affirm for the many members of Congress who backed past trade deals but opposed Fast Track that the TPP must be stopped.

It is inevitable that there will be another wildfire. It is part of the redwood ecology. As with the 2008 Lightning Complex fires, it will be high intensity and difficult to fight. Decades of overcutting and fire suppression have resulted in proliferation of forest fuels.

Timber companies are currently poisoning hardwood trees using a method called “Hack & Squirt”, leaving the trees to die and eventually decompose. As a result, our coastal forests now have as many as 15 million intentionally killed hardwood trees left standing. Add to that a tinder-dry forest in its fourth year of drought and we have—a ticking time bomb!

Even if you don’t live near the forest and are not in danger of losing your life or property, you care about our brave volunteer and professional firefighters.

A Cal Fire Incident Commander cautions his firefighters about the dangerous snags and dead trees which can fall and spread a fire. “He wanted to be sure that the firefighters paid attention carefully to each and every snag. It only takes one to cause injury or death.”

I asked our Mendocino County Air Pollution Control Officer Bob Scaglione about the smoke from these poisoned trees when they burn. He wrote: “… the main ingredient, isopropylamine salt of Imazapyr…indicates that when thermally decomposed, may release hazardous and/or toxic fumes. and may release irritating or toxic fumes if burned.” He went on: Just as in “treated” lumber, I would whole heartedly recommend NOT burning wood that has been treated with any other EPA registered herbicide or pesticide.

Scaglione continued: “As to your question concerning protection of you and your family in case of fire, let me state the obvious; the most healthy option is not to remain in smoke laden areas if at all possible.”

You may not be in danger of burning in the next forest fire, but most of us will be breathing that toxic smoke when those poisoned trees burn. Think of our firefighters, putting themselves in harm’s way. They are the first line of defense and the first to be harmed by this misguided practice of intentionally killing and leaving standing millions of trees every year.

I hope you’ll give your firefighters and neighbors a fighting chance by signing the petition to place this important initiative on the ballot. MRC’s Mike Jani recently told a reporter that when this initiative becomes law they’d stop hack & squirt. Please help us defuse this time bomb.

WE’RE AMAZED that no one in Official Mendocino County seems upset in the least about Mental Health Director Tom Pinizzotto — a former Ortner executive — negotiating billing rates and Mental Health contracts with his old pals at Ortner Management Group.

LET’S REVIEW:
WE HAVE Supervisor Dan Gjerde pointing out that Ortner is overcharging for administration.
WE HAVE Ortner’s bill showing that they’re overcharging for case management (and probably more, buried deep in their nearly unreadable bills).

WE HAVE the Grand Jury’s report from last year pointing out in chapter and verse that Mr. Pinizzotto has an obvious “appearance” of a conflict of interest, i.e., an actual conflict of interest if not a technically illegal one.

SINCE Pinizzotto oversees Ortner’s Mental Health activities and acts as gatekeeper for information to the Board of Supervisors and the public, and since he’s a former Ortner employee who negotiated privatization of roughly half of Mendocino County’s mental health services (valued at $7 to $ million annually) with Ortner and then went to work as an administrator with the unprivatized part of Mendocino County’s mental health services, how could this NOT be an illegal conflict of interest?

WE HAVE a Mental Health Advisory Board that doesn’t interest itself in finances or actual delivery of services, which causes us to wonder how that board views its function. What is its reason for being?

WE STILL HAVE a bloated County Mental Health department — also overseen by Pinizzotto — in spite of most of the work supposedly having been farmed out to Ortner Management Group, a private for-profit business, and Redwood Children’s Management Company, another private business.

WE HAVE A Board of Supervisors (well, four of them anyway — Hamburg is either oblivious or complicit) who seem interested in looking into some aspects of the Mental Health Department’s finances but never gets around to actually doing it.

WE HAVE a small army of free-range nuts and drug-addled Mendolanders who get no “service” and cause a lot of trouble and expense because a huge chunk of the Mental Health money is not going anywhere near them. Instead, we have the Ortner people offering alleged services like Tai Chi and Geezers Talking To Each Other (“Senior Peer Counseling”) being charged out by the minute as a “Mental Health Service.”

WE HAVE this private contractor, Ortner, in business to make a profit for its owners deciding who gets what mental health service based largely on ability to pay or insurance coverage.

AND WE HAVE Ortner (via a subcontractor) about to move in to the Old Coast Hotel in downtown Fort Bragg where they will surely expand their admin services even more because Ortner has yet to bill at his full spending authority rate rubberstamped by the supervisors.

WE HAVE HHSA Director Stacey Cryer saying — admitting, really, after more than two years of privatization experience — they have a lot to learn about the process, and admits that the County and Ortner are still performing duplicate administrative functions.

WE HAVE AN ongoing multi-million dollar mental health deficit caused by state denials of mental health service reimbursement claims, which drains money away from other important county programs, including law enforcement which has become Mendocino County’s de facto mental health services provider although we’re paying a private provider between $7 and $8 million annually to care for this county’s adult walking wounded.

AND WE HAVE the Board of Supervisors throwing even more money at this badly broken and corrupt mess via two recent $500k Mental Health contract amendments and the pending $150k “Stepping Up” initiative as if any real good is being done for the bulk of the Mentally Ill with these wasted tax dollars.

HOW BAD DOES THIS HAVE TO GET before somebody at least audits this stinking pile of privatized administrative manure?

CALLING DA EYSTER: Is fraud still a crime? Isn’t Pinizzotto’s position illegal?
~~

On the orders of George Washington the Continental Army burned the village of Coreorgonel in what is now Ithaca in September 1779. The town was occupied by Tutelo people, who had fled the British and were taken in by the Cayugas of the Six Nations. Washington’s orders to lay waste and devastation to the tribes of the Six Nations, burn their villages and destroy their crops with the objective being “their total destruction and devastation and the capture of as many persons of every age and sex as possible.” Painting by Glenn Norris; image provided by the History Center of Tompkins County.

In the US, as the country celebrates the 4th of July, more are understanding that the so-called “founding fathers” have taken credit for a mass movement of colonists who sought independence, where nearly 100 “Declarations of Independence” were written before the Jefferson version; and where the issues of racism, sexism, and ethnic cleansing of the Indigenous were not recognized. Rather than celebrating the slave-owning plutocrats who hijacked this country we celebrate those who continue the struggle for self-determination here and around the world.

The struggle, as we can see in Greece, is against the plutocratic bankers who profit while the 99 percent suffer the consequences of their wealth extraction. True independence is a worldwide struggle that is ongoing.

It is essential that we understand the true history of the United States and how it plays out today in order to transform the world to be more just and sustainable. Bill Bigelow of the Zinn Education Project provides excellent references in “Celebrating the Fourth of July is a Cartoon in Miseducation.”

Indigenous Resistance

There has been 500 years of Indigenous resistance in the United States.

For a better understanding of the utter brutality used to take land and fund the founding of the US, read “Indigenous Peoples History of the United States” by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. She describes the roots of the “American Way of War” that means total annihilation – destroying food crops, terrorizing women, children and the elderly and killing all potential fighters without concern for the non-fighters of any age or sex that die with them. That brutality continues today in subtler but still violent ways beginning with economic embargoes and sanctions to shock and awe aerial bombardments and constant drone attacks.

The Indigenous Peoples of the United States continue to be mistreated, for example the taking of Indigenous land, including Sacred Sites, and giving it to corporations so they can extract its wealth as is happening in Arizona. Tomorrow the Apache Stronghold convoy begins its journey to Washington. Click here to learn more about their struggle and how you can support them. This is an opportunity to begin to reverse the long practice of exploitation of Indigenous Nations.

White Supremacist Violence

LGBTQ Immigrant Rights protesters hold a die-in near the White House.

Bree Newsome describes why she scaled the flag pole in Charleston after the massacre to take down the confederate flag. She says: “I removed the flag not only in defiance of those who enslaved my ancestors in the southern United States, but also in defiance of the oppression that continues against black people globally in 2015….”

Newsome is active with the growing Freedom Side movement of black and brown youth working to build more inclusive, economically just and democratic institutions. United We Dream, also a member of Freedom Side, held an action outside the White House this week to protest the detention of LGBTQ immigrants and their mistreatment.

Structural Violence

A part of the increasing awareness of injustice is the role of structural violence, which comes in many forms, and its roots in a hierarchical social order where a few exploit the many for profit. This is explored in depth by Marc Pilisuk and Jennifer Rountree in “The Hidden Structure of Violence.”

There are many current examples. The Obama administration is moving forward with the triad of treaties, the TransPacific Partnership (TPP), the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trade-in Services Agreement (TiSA). Recent leaks of the TPP and TiSAreveal the harm they will cause by driving a global race to the bottom in worker rights, wages, health and destruction of the planet. The TiSA leak should enrage every local government as Wikileaks reports their loss of control over their local ecoomy: “The draft Annex aims to reduce procurement regulation to ensure that TiSA governments will not favour local services over services supplied by foreign multinationals.”

That pivot also has a military arm which includes building more US military bases and running military drills in ecologically sensitive areas in South Korea, Okinawa, the Maldives and the Philippines where there are strong community opposition. This week during a commemoration of the battle of Okinawa, the audience heckled Japanese Prime Minister Abe for his support of increased militarization and a new base in Henoko. A protest of the Asian Pivot was also held in Manila.

Palestinians in the Port of Gaza wave the Palestinian flag at a rally in support of the Freedom Flotilla III.

An international coalition, Freedom Flotilla III, attempted once again to end the blockade of Gaza. As the four boats approached Gaza, the Israeli military intercepted the lead boat, used violence against the peaceful passengers and jailed them in Hebron. The other boats turned around to avoid the fate of the Freedom Flotilla II in which nine passengers were killed by the Israelis but Israel was never prosecuted.

Greece is at a critical crossroads this weekend after being the first developed country to miss a payment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Tomorrow Greek citizens will vote on a referendumover whether or not to accept bailout conditions, which include severe austerity measures, imposed by the European Union.

Historical context is essential to understand the situation in Greece as since World War II the US, United Kingdom and Germany have repeatedly abused Greece and pushed it toward neoliberal oligarchy. The IMF intentionally acted to provide inadequate support to Greece after its economic collapse and to protect investors and elites.

There is a strong movement to vote “No” on the referendum which has held massive protests recently, including the largest crowd last night since 1974 when the dictatorship ended. But the elites are doing all they can through their control of the media to convince the people to vote “Yes.” Seumas Milne of the Guardian writes that the EU is using this as an opportunity for regime change in Greece and to end the rise of Leftist governments such as Syriza and Podemos.

A Few Victories to Celebrate

There are active movements in the US and abroad working for justice and gains are being made. Reclaim the American Dream reports that 16 states and 500 cities have voted to repeal Citizens United.

A Supreme Court ruling in Oklahoma this week opened the door to lawsuits against oil companies for damage caused by fracking earthquakes.

So let’s celebrate the global movement to stop the violent neoliberal agenda and transform the world to a place where all people are treated equitably with peace and social, economic and environmental justice for all. And let’s understand our true history so we don’t repeat it. Today, let’s celebrate the ongoing struggles of millions around the globe for true independence and not the founding myths on which the United States is built.
~~

Our country was born in revulsion to hereditary family rule. Yet we’re supposed to accept that 2016 will be the 8th presidential election out of 10 since 1980 with a Bush and/or a Clinton on a major party presidential ticket.

Both the Bushes and the Clintons — sometimes with different approaches and rhetoric — have presided over national decline, especially the corporatization and militarization of our society. In the decades of domination by these two families and their corporate friends, our country has experienced:

middle-class decline

ever-increasing corporate control of politics and economics

“free trade” pacts like the TPP that hurt workers and the environment

near-constant war and erosion of civil liberties

government bailouts for Wall Street but not homeowners

structural poverty and a racially-biased “drug war”

ever-rising costs of a college education

If you believe our country needs a total change of direction — not just rejecting the Bushes and the Clintons, but any candidates who propose to continue their corporatist policies — please click on the following. . .

The reality is that corporate elites can’t lose with another Bush or Clinton. In a Politico article revealing Hillary Clinton’s support among Republican financiers, a “top Republican-leaning Wall Street lawyer” said the following: “If it turns out to be Jeb versus Hillary we would love that and either outcome would be fine.”

Good news is that Hillary Clinton faces growing progressive opposition in the Democratic race.

Please spread this message to friends and relatives who are fed up with the status quo.

After all this time, CalTrans still insists on seeking criminal restitution fees from Will Parrish for his occupation of the “wick drain stitcher” in Little Lake Valley, which occurred in the early summer of 2013! After countless delays, the restitution hearing is scheduled for Friday, October 10th at 9:30 a.m. at Mendocino County Courtroom “B” in Ukiah.

CalTrans seeks $154,733 in restitution fees from Will, down from their original claim of $490,002. This is in spite of the fact that Will already settled the criminal charges related to his non-violent action in Jan. 2014, with the Mendocino County DA agreeing to two misdemeanors, which become infractions on Will’s record in Jan. 2016, and 100 hours of community service (which Will has already completed).

Okay, you Nattering Nabobs of Negativism, listen up. I know you’re tired, disgusted, and thoroughly pissed off by the Gigolos running this country. You and I know almost all politicians are for sale to the highest bidder and we know the highest bidders are getting richer every day on the backs of us wage slaves. And, it seems there’s nothing we can do about it. Or is there?

Yes, there is actually. And it doesn’t just mean lifting our sharpened pencil and voting the bums out of office. There is hope even beyond that. Sometimes a bunch of common folks get so fed up that they decide to get it together, even here in Mendoland, to put something on the ballot that will knock your socks off. Something that will benefit us, our kids, and their kids, for a long time to come.

If you do nothing else this fall, at least peruse your election ballot and go to the very end where you’ll see Measure S. Then take your pencil or pen and fill in the box that says YES. What have you done? You may prevent your tap water from catching fire. Not only is such tap water not fit to drink for you or your kids. It’s not fit to drink for your cats and dogs and it will probably kill any plants you’re trying to grow.

Measure S is a citizens initiative, like Measure H, the GMO ban was, seeking to prevent something bad from happening in our county. That ‘bad’ would be fracking. Measure S puts the people’s will before the will and greed of the corporate giants who want to make still more money, even it means contaminating your water source. Measure S, if passed, won’t let them do that.

Sure, it isn’t perfect and there will probably be a battle with the Big Boys when it is passed. However, ‘Bring them on’, I say. Let’s get this fight and the disparities between the Haves, and Have Nots out in the open. If the People have spoken, is anyone listening? You bet! There is Hope. It’s my favorite four letter word (in spite of Bill Clinton). You can have it too, It will bring a bounce to your step. Try it.
~~

In less than six weeks, Mendocino County has a chance to make significant history.

This November 4th, if passed into ordinance, Measure S will become the first county in California, and only the 2nd county in the country, to establish a Community Bill of Rights asserting our inherent right to clean water through banning the banning of any and all fracking activities in the county. (You can read about Measure S at Yesons.me.)

For over a decade now there has been a fast growing grass roots movement across the country where counties, communities and cities are exercising their rights to local self-governance. Over 160 communities across the United States have now passed local ordinances declaring their rights. The ordinances have included the banning of fracking, disallowing toxic corporate sludge waste dumping on private and community lands, halting continued toxification of local ecosystems and water streams and denying corporations the same rights as human beings, also known as corporate personhood.

I’ve “put myself out there,” as the young folk like to say nowadays, by launching a public fundraising campaign via the site Indiegogo. Being that I am not in a position to make a full living as a journalist otherwise, I’ve turned to The People to support me financially. Overall, I’ve been really happy about the results! As of this writing, I’ve received $3,297 in donations.

I’ve just learned that someone will give me $1,000 within the next day or two! That will bring me to just $1,200 shy of my goal of $5,500. My deadline is this Saturday. If I receive an average of $300 in donations in the next four days, I’ll be all the way there.

Journalists who challenge power structures and investigate deeply into the causes of social ills scarcely get funded in the contemporary media marketplace. Please support me in bringing these stories of optimism and determination in the face of destruction to broader audiences…

No other place of equivalent size in the world has altered its watersheds as dramatically as California. The Golden State is home to a staggering infrastructure of dams, reservoirs, power plants, pumping plants, canals, aqueducts, gates, tunnels, and other installations that are all about controlling where water goes and who receives it.

The year 2013 was California’s driest on record. The first six months of 2014 have been the hottest half-year on record. Reservoirs are drying up. Groundwater basins are diminishing at an alarming pace. Yet, the water demands of the state’s gargantuan agribusiness empire, its sprawling metropolises, and its extractive industries (such as, increasingly, fracking) are only growing.

Politicians and business leaders are seizing on this crisis by pushing for the largest dam- and canal-building binge since the State Water Project of the 1960s and ’70s. The best known of these, the Delta Twin Tunnels, is just the tip of the spear for all manner of new schemes that would further constipate California’s waterways and destroy much of what remains of its aquatic life…

New details have come to light regarding the US Army Corps of Engineers’ June 20th decision to suspend the Willits Bypass’ US Clean Water Act permit (404 permit): the first time the Corps has ever suspended a northern California project on Clean Water Act grounds.

The timing of the suspension was linked to CalTrans’ efforts to resume importing soil from the Mendocino Forest Products (ie, Mendocino Redwood Company) mill site north of Willits, which is Big Orange’s preferred source of fill to create the massive berm on which the freeway would be perched north of its roughly one-mile viaduct past Hearst-Willits Road.

The crucially important purpose of the Grange Farm School is to help aspiring farmers learn the skills they need to pursue their dreams as small farmers and to provide healthy local food to their communities.

You know the bad news:

America’s farmers are aging, and their children are not replacing them on the farm. American commercial agriculture is good at producing huge quantities of mono-crops laden with GMOs and chemicals; but wholesome, healthy food is hard to come by. And conventional agriculture gulps fossil fuels and water and depletes the topsoil at alarming rates.

Yesterday we saw intense, behind-the-scenes, shady lobbying tactics from Monsanto and the biotech industry in Sacramento as they fought to kill GMO labeling in California. Yesterday there was a floor vote on SB 1381 and it needs just 2 more votes to pass – but we need your help today!

The vote late last night was 19 to 17 in favor SB 1381, but the bill NEEDS 21 VOTES to pass! Senator Noreen Evans has called for a reconsideration vote of the bill and we will have a FINAL VOTE TODAY.

Ever wonder how your tiny carbon footprint really impacts the big picture of climate change? Though you might feel like your lifestyle is insignificant compared to things like oil extraction or vehicle emissions, the choices we make in our day-to-day life — how we get around, what we eat, how we live — play a major role in slowing climate change.

Here’s a list of 10 ways you can join in the fight to reduce our carbon footprint. Whether you save it on your desktop, share it with friends, or stick a copy on your fridge (PDF), this quick reference guide breaks down what you can do today to protect the planet for future generations.

1. Green your commute

Transportation causes about 25 per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, so walk, cycle or take transit whenever you can. You’ll save money and get into better shape! If you can’t go car-free, try carpooling or car sharing, and use the smallest, most fuel-efficient vehicle possible.

The Evergreen Cooperatives of Cleveland, Ohio are pioneering innovative models of job creation, wealth building, and sustainability. Evergreen’s employee-owned, for-profit companies are based locally and hire locally. They create meaningful green jobs and keep precious financial resources within the Greater University Circle neighborhoods. Worker-owners at Evergreen earn a living wage and build equity in the firms as owners of the business.

The movement to end the violence through the decriminalization of drugs has never had so much momentum. And it’s never been easier to get involved.

On Saturday, May 10, the third annual “National Dignity March” converged in Mexico City, with hundreds of marchers having walked for a full month from cities and towns all over Mexico. Most of the marchers had lost family members or friends in drug-trafficking violence.

On May 24, millions of activists from around the world will once again March Against Monsanto, calling for the permanent boycott of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and other harmful agro-chemicals. Currently, marches will occur on six continents, in 52 countries,with events in over 400 cities. In the US, solidarity marches are slated to occur in 47 states. A comprehensive list of marches can be accessed at http://www.march-against-monsanto.com.

Tami Monroe Canal, founder of March Against Monsanto (MAM), was inspired to start the movement to protect her two daughters. “Monsanto’s predatory business and corporate agricultural practices threatens their generation’s health, fertility and longevity. MAM supports a sustainable food production system. We must act now to stop GMOs and harmful pesticides.”

“We were born from water, we are of the water, and we fight to protect it.”—Chief Caleen Sisk

Retaining a concept of sovereignty based on deep ancestral ties with place, indigenous people are on the front lines of critical environmental battles everywhere. Their voices and actions are leading the way forward.

Strongly rooted in their traditional practices, the Winnemem Wintu of Northern California are engaged in ecological, cultural, and spiritual restoration, including bringing salmon back to their home river, the McCloud. Chief Sisk will speak about the tribe’s struggle for survival and their current work of restoring natural water systems and stopping disastrous proposed megaprojects such as the Delta Twin Tunnels and the Shasta Dam raise that would flood large portions of sacred Winnemem land—for the second time. Sisk is also an outspoken opponent of fracking.

“…In many regions, the Navy plans to increase the number of its exercises or expand the areas in which they may occur, and virtually every coastal state will be affected. Some exercises may occur in the nation’s most biologically sensitive marine habitats, including National Marine Sanctuaries and breeding habitat for the endangered North Atlantic right whale. In all, the Navy anticipates more than 2.3 million takes (significant disruptions in marine mammal foraging, breeding

High above the Bowling Green town dump, a green energy revolution is being won. It’s being helped along by the legalization of marijuana and its bio­fueled cousin, industrial hemp.

But it’s under extreme attack from the billionaire Koch Brothers, utilities like First Energy (FE), and a fossil/nuke industry that threatens our existence on this planet.

Robber Baron resistance to renewable energy has never been more fierce. The prime reason is that the Solartopian Revolution embodies the ultimate threat to the corporate utility industry and the hundreds of billions of dollars it has invested in the obsolete monopolies that define King CONG (Coal, Oil, Nukes & Gas).

The outcome will depend on YOUR activism, and will determine whether we survive here at all. Four very large wind turbines in this small Ohio town are producing clean, cheap electricity that can help save our planet. A prime reason they exist is that Bowling Green has a municipal­owned utility.

Fracking is already happening in some parts of California, but if Jerry Brown and Big Oil get their way, it could explode in the state. In many parts of the country, fracking operations are digging up natural gas – which has its own problems – but in California, this dangerous process will largely be used to dig up dirty oil. The Governor is forgetting that his first priority is the well-being of his constituents, not oil industry profits. Jerry needs to pick a side: either he’s the climate champion he says he is, or he’s Big Oil Brown, champion of fracking and the oil companies.

Climate Impacts
There’s no question that we need to leave oil in the ground, and using fracking to get it out makes that no brainer even clearer. Fracking is extremely energy intensive, and has also been seen to encourage methane leakage, which can contribute massively to global warming as well.

Water Impacts
Fracking uses roughly 4 million gallons of water and 80,000 gallons of proppants and chemicals per fracturing. In a state like California where water is so precious, every gallon counts.

by Robert Faturechi and Derek Willis A group that gave more money to one of President-elect Trump’s fundraising efforts than any other political action committee failed to disclose its donors before Election Day and exceeded caps on contribution amounts. America Comes First PAC was created in early August. But for the next three months, it disclosed nothing […]

by Kyra Gurney, Anjali Tsui, David Iaconangelo, Selina Cheng, This report is a collaboration between ProPublica and the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University. A version of this story is being co-published with The Miami Herald. Wealthy politicians and businessmen suspected of corruption in their native lands are fleeing to a safe […]

by Patrick G. Lee This story was co-published with Mother Jones. Since 2015, California has issued about 800,000 licenses to drivers who lack proof of legal residence. In Illinois, more than 212,000 people have received what are known as temporary visitor driver’s licenses. Connecticut has approved around 26,600 drive only licenses for undocumented immigrant […]

One of the things I’ve had occasion to notice, over the course of the decade or so I’ve put into writing these online essays, is the extent to which repeating patterns in contemporary life go unnoticed by the people who are experiencing them. I’m not talking here about the great cycles of history, which take long enough to roll over that a certain amount of […]

I have a bone to pick with the Washington Post. A few days back, as some of my readers may be aware, it published a list of some two hundred blogs that it claimed were circulating Russian propaganda, and I was disappointed to find that The Archdruid Report didn’t make the cut. Oh, granted, I don’t wait each week for secret orders from Boris Badenov, the mock […]

In a year that saw the death of singer Prince, GQ's Chris Heath spoke with several people who knew him to get their stories about the legendary artist. One story in particular stands out, and it references the singer's Jehovah's Witnesses beliefs (without explicitly saying that).

Fox News propagandist Todd Starnes' latest headline claims that a Texas school censored a poster featuring a scene from "A Charlie Brown Christmas," arguing that this is political correctness run amok. As usual, the facts don't back him up.

A Christian charity that offers low-priced Christmas gifts to families that can't afford anything else refused to take donations collected at a local bar, because they didn't want to have any ties with alcohol.

“If prayer actually worked, everyone would be a millionaire, nobody would ever get sick and die, and both football teams would always win.” –Ethan Winer The phrase “nothing fails like prayer” was coined in 1976 by secular activist, Ann Nicol … Continue reading →

The Bible makes some rather bold claims about prayer. How well do they hold up? (Part 1 of a 4 part series). Does prayer—like it’s taught in biblical Christianity–actually work? That all depends on what you’re looking for. Prayer can … Continue reading →

By Adi Chowdhury What is the Internet? Is the Web a tool? A hindrance? An impediment? A propeller of anti-social behavior? A path towards enhanced freedom and justice? An educator? Something we should further develop? Something we should repress? Something we should be worried about? As the administrator and author, I would like to… Continue reading Demons […]

By Adi Chowdhury Last Sunday, the 30th of October, was probably a regular day for most of us. Our day proceeded as usual, as we left our homes for work or school and returned home tired, only to dine well and drift off to sleep peacefully. On the other side of the story, last… Continue reading Injustice and Agony for Religious Minorities in Bangladesh

Christians' weird way of engaging with virginity is a big problem in their culture, as well as a sign of something seriously wrong at its core. Some recent events have reminded me anew of that dysfunction.The post T’is the Season: Virgin Births. appeared first on Roll to Disbelieve.

Bill Schnoebelen is one such storyteller. Once a popular figure in fundagelical Christianity, his narrative long ago lost its cachet. He's had to reinvent himself--but is finding that once someone's joined the Cult of Before Stories, that's really hard to do.The post The Cult of Before Stories: Desperate for Relevance. appeared first on Roll t […]

“Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body. Here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.” —Ecclesiastes Secularists like me became legitimately concerned when we first learned that our new president-elect selected billionaire right-wing megadonor Betsy DeVos to [Rea […]

Do you find it frustrating to talk to religious people about their beliefs? Nonreligious people often have a hard time understanding their devout counterparts, so they engage them in the kinds of conversations that are meant to tease out the intellectual nuances in what they believe in order to better understand them. It doesn’t take [Read More...]The post T […]

written by Jeffrey Tayler The first woman in a hijab to anchor a television news broadcast! To dance as a ballerina! To fence in the Olympics! To — cue for gasps at the sheer progressive splendor of the moment — pose in Playboy! Headlines proclaiming such “firsts” — performed by Muslim women living, nota bene, in the United States and Canada — have appear […]

In this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris speaks with journalist James Kirchick about the coming Trump presidency, liberalism vs illiberalism, fake news, Russia, Syria, Iran, and the future of American power. James Kirchick is a journalist and foreign correspondent currently based in Washington. He has reported from Southern and North Africa, the […]

In this episode of the Waking Up podcast, Sam Harris speaks with computer scientist Stuart Russell about the challenge of building artificial intelligence that is compatible with human well-being.Stuart Russell is a Professor of Computer Science and Smith-Zadeh Professor in Engineering, University of California, Berkeley and Adjunct Professor of Neurological […]

Seneca wrote his 20-sections On the Shortness of Life in 49 CE, the year he returned to Rome from his exile in Corsica, as a moral essay addressed to his friend Paulinus. It begins: “The majority of mortals, Paulinus, complain bitterly of the spitefulness of Nature, because we are born for a brief span of … Continue reading Seneca: on the shortness of life […]

A few months ago I went to the wonderful Brooklyn Academic of Music to see a modern rendition (actually, multiple versions) of the story of Phaedra. It was, as is often the case with BAM’s “Next Wave” festival, a strange play, and not necessarily an improvement on the original, by the Greek dramatist Euripides. Interestingly, Seneca … Continue reading Seneca […]

By Karen L. Garst -- The Faithless Feminist ~ The Biblical Tetragrammaton, the Hebrew Name for God the Father. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Unless you are Jewish or took a course in religion during your lifetime, you may not even know what the letters YHWH stand for. No worries. It is the name of God written in Hebrew in the Torah or, as Christians call it, the […]

(or "Christmas gift ideas for the skeptic on your list"!) By Tania K ~ Up until a few years ago, I thought that I would always wear the "Christian" label. I never doubted that all the components of my religious faith would be a huge part of my life until, well, the Lord called me Home. When that faith began slipping away from me, my world […]

As species struggle to move to adapt to climate change, many are disappearing from the warmest parts of their usual range, research shows. By Sabrina Shankman Hundreds of species around the world—plants, animals, marine life—are experiencing local extinctions due to climate change, according to a new study. Researchers say it's likely to be just the beg […]

As Oklahoma attorney general, Scott Pruitt vigorously fought the EPA's Renewable Fuel Standard, which Donald Trump supported in his campaign. By Georgina Gustin During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised to pick a leader for the Environmental Protection Agency who would be friendly to agricultural interests, once even saying he would appoin […]

There is NO EVIDENCE that the Bible is from or inspired by a God, or that either of these two man-made biblical scriptures -- foundational to Christianism -- is true: Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave is only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." NONE.

Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so. ~Robert Ingersoll

All religion is a foolish answer to a foolish question. ~Thomas Shelby

The strongly religious fear our capacity for moral reasoning that does not require a magical, invisible deity. They fear our ability to be ethical without the threat of hell or the reward of heaven. They fear that our allegiance is not to this or that country, or this or that prophet, or this or that guru, but to humanity as a whole. ~Phil Zuckerman

The idea that God could only forgive our sins by having his son tortured to death as a scapegoat is surely, from an objective point of view, a deeply unpleasant idea. If God wanted to forgive us our sins, why didn’t he just forgive them? Why did he have to have his son tortured? ~Richard Dawkins

Small is beautiful, when small is skilled and dedicated. ~Gene Logsdon

All religions are lies and scams, and all believers are victims. ~David Silverman

We [atheists] have no martyrs, we have no saints. ~Christopher Hitchens

Morality is doing right, no matter what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what is right. ~H L Mencken

I've observed that people tend to live at one of two extremes in the spectrum of life: those who live on the edge, and those who avoid the edge. Those who live on the edge are hanging out in the most dangerous and unstable places — yet they're also often the most powerful agents of change, because the edge is where change is happening; away from the edge, things are naturally unchanging. ~Thom Hartmann

Religion. It's given people hope in a world torn apart by religion. ~Jon Stewart

My 12th year was my most Christian and most boring year in my life. ~Chuck Berry

Come on. You just can’t come up with anything more ridiculous than someone who honestly thinks that all human woes stem from an incident in which a talking snake accosted a naked woman in a primeval garden and talked her into eating a piece of fruit. ~Keith Parsons

When men stop believing in God, it isn't that they then believe in nothing: they believe in everything. ~Umberto Eco

Christians don’t need to be born again, they need to grow up. ~John Shelby Spong

Life is not a problem to be solved, nor a question to be answered. Life is a mystery to be experienced. ~Alan Watts

Society is like a stew: If you don't stir it up every now and then, the scum rises to the top.~Edward Abbey

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. ~Buckminster Fuller

How thoughtful of God to arrange matters so that, wherever you happen to be born, the local religion always turns out to be the true one. ~ Richard Dawkins

I’m not saying there isn’t a god, but there isn’t a god who cares about people. And who wants a god who doesn’t give a shit? ~Robert Munsch

One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion. ~Arthur C. Clarke

Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day; Give him a religion, and he'll starve to death
while praying for a fish. ~ Anon

When you understand why you dismiss all the other gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. ~ Stephen Roberts

Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning. ~ Joseph Campbell

The only true definition of an atheist: a person who disbelieves or lacks belief in God or gods. ~Oxford English Dictionary

You have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

Faith is just another word for gullibility.

I sang as one / Who on a tilting deck sings / To keep men's courage up, though the wave hangs / That shall cut off their sun. ~C. Day Lewis

Resilience Tools (Basic)

Freethought/Stoics

Religion Divides

The Wikipedia of Christian Terrorism (Link)

Books of the Freethinkers Bible

What is a fact beyond all doubt is that we share an ancestor with every other species of animal and plant on the planet. We know this because some genes are recognizably the same genes in all living creatures, including animals, plants and bacteria. And, above all, the genetic code itself — the dictionary by which all genes are translated — is the same across all living creatures that have ever been looked at. We are all cousins. Your family tree includes not just obvious cousins like chimpanzees and monkeys but also mice, buffaloes, iguanas, wallabies, snails, dandelions, golden eagles, mushrooms, whales, wombats and bacteria. All are our cousins. Every last one of them. Isn't that a far more wonderful thought than any myth? And the most wonderful thing of all is that we know for certain it is literally true...

The whole world is made of incredibly tiny things, much too small to be visible to the naked eye — and yet none of the myths or so-called holy books that some people, even now, think were given to us by an all-knowing god, mentions them at all! In fact, when you look at those myths and stories, you can see that they don't contain any of the knowledge that science has patiently worked out. They don't tell us how big or how old the universe is; they don't tell us how to treat cancer; they don't explain gravity or the internal combustion engine; they don't tell us about germs, or anesthetics. In fact, unsurprisingly, the stories in holy books don't contain any more information about the world than was known to the primitive peoples who first started telling them! If these 'holy books' really were written, or dictated, or inspired, by all-knowing gods, don't you think it's odd that those gods said nothing about any of these important and useful things? -Richard Dawkins

Prayer seems to me a cry of weakness, and an attempt to avoid, by trickery, the rules of the game as laid down. I do not choose to admit weakness. I accept the challenge of responsibility. Life, as it is, does not frighten me, since I have made my peace with the universe as I find it, and bow to its laws… It seems to me that organized creeds are collections of words around a wish. I feel no need for such.

I know that nothing is destructible; things merely change forms. When the consciousness we know as life ceases, I know that I shall still be part and parcel of the world. I was a part before the sun rolled into shape and burst forth in the glory of change. I was, when the earth was hurled out from its fiery rim. I shall return with the earth to Father Sun, and still exist in substance when the sun has lost its fire, and disintegrated into infinity to perhaps become a part of the whirling rubble of space. Why fear? The stuff of my being is matter, ever changing, ever moving, but never lost; so what need of denominations and creeds to deny myself the comfort of all my fellow men? -Zora Neale Hurston

Democratic Socialism

Socialist Alternative is the organization that spearheaded the campaign to elect Kshama Sawant to Seattle City Council, the first independent socialist elected in a major U.S. city in decades. We are a national organization fighting in our workplaces, communities, and campuses against the exploitation and injustices people face every day. We are community activists fighting against budget cuts in public services; we are activists campaigning for a $15/hour minimum wage and fighting, democratic unions; we are people of all colors speaking out against racism and attacks on immigrants, students organizing against tuition hikes and war, women and men fighting sexism and homophobia.

We believe the Republicans and Democrats are both parties of big business, and we are campaigning to build an independent, alternative party of workers and young people to fight for the interests of the millions, not the millionaires.

We see the global capitalist system as the root cause of the economic crisis, poverty, discrimination, war, and environmental destruction. As capitalism moves deeper into crisis, a new generation of workers and youth must join together to take the top 500 corporations into public ownership under democratic control to end the ruling elites’ global competition for profits and power.

We believe the dictatorships that existed in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were perversions of what socialism is really about.

We are for democratic socialism where ordinary people will have control over our daily lives.

An atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An atheist believes that deed must be done instead of prayer said. An atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanished, war eliminated. ~Madalyn Murray O'Hair, Founder

In the history of the world, the number of times a supernatural anything has been proven true is zero. Every god, ghost, spirit, devil, possession, and miracle ever claimed true is a lie. No exceptions. The number of times an atheistic (godless) argument has been proven wrong by a theistic argument is zero... In contrast, every time a theist-versus-atheist argument has been settled, an atheistic argument has won. This does not mean science is antireligion; it just means (or rather, strongly implies) religion is wrong... I challenge anyone to find any scientifically valid testable proof of anything supernatural, ever. If you can prove it, even once, I'll quit my job. I'm not nervous, as it has never been done in history, because it's ALL a lie. ~David Silverman, President

Local Organic Family Farms

THE SMALL ORGANIC FARM greatly discomforts the corporate/ industrial mind because the small organic farm is one of the most relentlessly subversive forces on the planet. Over centuries both the communist and the capitalist systems have tried to destroy small farms because small farmers are a threat to the consolidation of absolute power.

Thomas Jefferson said he didn’t think we could have democracy unless at least 20% of the population was self-supporting on small farms so they were independent enough to be able to tell an oppressive government to stuff it.

It is very difficult to control people who can create products without purchasing inputs from the system, who can market their products directly thus avoiding the involvement of mercenary middlemen, who can butcher animals and preserve foods without reliance on industrial conglomerates, and who can’t be bullied because they can feed their own faces. ~Eliot Coleman